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RHEL 3 / 4 : openssl096b (RHSA-2005:830)

Medium Nessus Plugin ID 20141

Synopsis

The remote Red Hat host is missing a security update.

Description

Updated OpenSSL096b compatibility packages that fix a remote denial of service vulnerability are now available.This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.The OpenSSL toolkit implements Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3), Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols, and serves as a full-strength general purpose cryptography library. OpenSSL 0.9.6b libraries are provided for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4 to allow compatibility with legacy applications.Testing performed by the OpenSSL group using the Codenomicon TLS Test Tool uncovered a NULL pointer assignment in the do_change_cipher_spec() function. A remote attacker could perform a carefully crafted SSL/TLS handshake against a server that uses the OpenSSL library in such a way as to cause OpenSSL to crash. Depending on the server this could lead to a denial of service. (CVE-2004-0079)This issue was reported as not affecting OpenSSL versions prior to 0.9.6c, and testing with the Codenomicon Test Tool showed that OpenSSL 0.9.6b as shipped as a compatibility library with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4 did not crash. However, an alternative reproducer has been written which shows that this issue does affect versions of OpenSSL prior to 0.9.6c.Note that Red Hat does not ship any applications with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 or 4 that use these compatibility libraries.Users of the OpenSSL096b compatibility package are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a patch provided by the OpenSSL group that protect against this issue.